Star Trek: Review of The Movies

It was a sad day on October 24, 1991 when Gene Roddenberry died. He was an extraordinary writer, producer and some would say visionary. Not only has his writing spawned a whole movement ‘Trekkies or Trekkers) but it also influenced pop culture while at the same time stretched the boundaries of what was acceptable on TV.

When the show first appeared on American TV in September 1966 Star Trek (now called Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)) it courted controversy by having a woman in a command position, as well as having a variety of commanders from different races (some traditionally American enemies).

With a stellar cast, the show always played with controversy as it produced many episodes that mirrored many present day issues, but tackled them from a very unique perspective - one of my favorite episodes feature a race that had one side of their face white, and the other side black – a minority had the colors reversed – this episode tackled racism head on and really commented on how ‘stupid’ racism really was.

The opening introduction is perhaps one of the most famous introductions of all time

“Space: The final frontier
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise
Its 5 year mission
To explore strange new worlds
To seek out new life and new civilizations
To boldly go where no man has gone before”

Surprisingly, Star Trek wasn’t on TV for that long, although is garnered a huge cult audience. Eventually, with a multitude of movies, some new series (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise and Voyager) it continued to enthrall the audience, and I am very pleased to say that with the recent ‘retro’ Star Trek Movie it looks like the franchise will be around for a long time yet, with another new movie being planned as I write.

The movies are diverse, tackling many subjects – some of them are excellent while some are really poor – however even the poor movies have a place in the Star Trek universe as they help to build the characters:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture moved Star Trek from TV to the big screen. No expense was spared and at times the special effects and cinematography were incredible, especially the opening sequences with the Enterprise. Released in 1979, the movie fulfilled the dream of Gene Rodenberry who always wanted to bring his work to a wider audience.

Paramount actually wanted to release a follow up series, but after the success of blockbuster movies like Star Wars they eventually were convinced to bring Star Trek to the big screen, and the results were mixed.

Everything was redesigned, from the uniforms, the sets to the Enterprise. While this was excellent, and created an opening seem that was almost 30 minutes long, it really detracted from the movie, which seemed more like a 30 minute episode stretched to fill out a 90 minute movie.

The script seemed to be forced, trying to find a common thread that would entice a non Trekky audience, and presenting something everyone could understand – the Earth was in danger from an unknown ‘alien’ source and only Kirk could save the day.

For me, the tried and tested formula of the series, where Kirk really did save the day every time, was old and tired – what was needed was something new and refreshing – what resulted was an indulgence in high powered technological feats and very little attention to plot and characters – this could have killed off the entire series right here! Luckily it didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad movie, I just expected far more from Rodenberry.

In the original series there was an episode where the Enterprise encountered some super-humans led by Khan – despite their superiority, Kirk was able to defeat them and send them into exile. This movie brings back Khan; he’s escaped his exile and is seeking revenge on Kirk and the Enterprise.

While Rodenberry wasn’t heavily involved in this movie, the movie does capture the essence of Star Trek very well. It has much of the tension, adventure and character that was missing from the first movie, and definitely captures the spirit of the original series very well.

With Ricardo Montalban continuing his role as Khan, the movie was enhanced, providing an adversary who was worthy of Kirk. The plot was delivered expertly and you found yourself sitting on the edge of your seat for most of the movie.

Many argue that this is the best Star Trek movie, and it’s hard to argue the point – if you only ever watch one Star Trek movie then this is the one to watch.

Leonard Nimoy took over directing duties with this movie and really seemed as a movie that was used to recreate a character that was killed off in the Wrath of Khan. (Bet you can’t guess which one!). Unfortunately, the curse of the odd numbered movies became a reality as Nimoy delivered a sub-standard movie that someone again lost the spirit of the original series. It concentrated more on the deeper nature of humankind and forgot about much of the adventure, intriguing and sheer power that is required to force through the plot and characters.

It’s not a particularly bad movie, just not good – it does at least re-unite the crew again.

Leonard Nimoy learned a lot from his ‘Search for Spock’ experience and it shows. Yet again the magic of Star Trek re-surfaced, especially with the special bond between Spock, McCoy and Kirk – this really was the first movie in which their subtle bond, based on humor and soft teasing really came through well.

What was most interesting about this movie was the fact that they brought the crew back to the twentieth century, and it was interesting to see their 24^th century take on some of the fashions, medicines etc of our day. This movie bought back the humor to the franchise, and while the plot was very good, it was the character interaction and subtle comedy that really made this a better movie, and more appealing to a wider audience.

Oh no – another odd numbered movie – therefore this should be a poor movie! Yep – it was. One thing that the makers of this movie refused to take into account was that the actors were getting older – the swashbuckling, adventure laden formula may have worked before, but somehow it didn’t seem right with the characters getting so much older. Add this to a mediocre plot that involves Spock’s half brother hijacking the Entrprise and force them to search for God on a mysterious planet surrounded by a strange barrier and you have the recipe for disaster.

The plot was convoluted and the action parts didn’t fit the older crew – for this reason, this movie failed and in my opinion is probably the worst Star Trek movie out there – it’s lucky that they kept on going!

With the characters getting older it was inevitable that there would be a point where you’d get to the last movie of the old cast – and while there is a transition movie with ‘Generations’, this movie represents the last movie where all of the original actors appeared together in a full feature fill.

While I expected it to be a nostalgic movie, that really didn’t deliver I was really surprised when the movie seemed to capture all of the elements of the original series, modernize them and also not make the crew look foolish. It captured Rodenberry’s ability to bring a political and moralistic story together and make you actually think about the underlying principles.

In this case, with Kirk accused and convicted of murdering a Klingon Ambassador of peace, and imprisoned, the rest of the crew not only have to rescue him but also prove his innocence. This movie was full of humor, but also full of adventure – it really showed off the franchise at its best and was a great way for the original crew to bow out.

Definitely one of the better movies.

Many Star Trek fans grew up after the original series had finished, and therefore their first experience of Star Trek was with the ‘Next Generation’ crew. Thus it was inevitable that the movie franchise would transition to the Next Generation, especially as the original series actors were getting older.

What was an interesting concept, linking both series together in a movie that featured members from both the original series and the next generation series didn’t quite work for me. Firstly the whole concept of having a floating ‘ribbon’ that when entered placed you in your own ‘nirvana’ seemed to unrealistic – and while this was used as an instrument to bring Kirk back, it just made the whole movie flawed.

Secondly, I was a little disappointed that despite this movie transitioning to the next gen crew, it almost commented that the original series crew were somehow better, and at times Captain Picard (Next Gen) had to defer to Captain Kirk – I felt that this was too unbalanced and made the whole movie feel fake.

Overall this just seemed like a movie inserted between movie 6 & 8 to transfer from one crew to another.

After being introduced in Generations, this movie concentrates solely on The Next Generation crew and one of the better enemies from the Next Generation series – the Borg.

Captian Picard was once assimilated by the Borg, a part man part machine species that assimilates every race in its path into the ‘collective’. Despite his reluctance due to his past experiences, Picard and the Enterprise rescue a federation ship being attacked by the Borg. As Picard prevails, a circular pod escapes from the Borg Cube and goes back in time to destroy the Earth so that man does not exist in the future and therefore cannot destroy the Borg – confused yet?

Picard goes back in time and find the man responsible for First Contact with aliens to ensure that the destruction caused by the Borg doesn’t prevent this first contact – it is this contact that leads to the Federation being created!

What follows is a very good movie that balances comedy, character building and action together with stunning effects – the flow of the movie is excellent and even if you’ve never watched The Next Generation you soon find yourself enjoying the characters.

This is definitely one of the better movies so far!

One of the prime directives of the Federation is that a planet must develop on its own and only enter the federation when it has achieved certain goals – such as warp drive. Thus, while they will often observe a planet, they will have no directive in the planet’s evolution.

During one of these expeditions, Data, a commander android from the Enterprise malfunctions and blows his cover. Picard and the enterprise go to the planet to discover why Data malfunctions.

What follows is an action filled, and yet thought provoking movie that shows the best of the Star Trek universe. Out of all the ‘next generation’ movies this is my favorite as it really draws on the characters and their relationships, while also making many political points about today’s society!

An excellent movie – well worth watching.

This was a case of one movie to far – with Insurrection we had a brilliant film, however it was almost if the writers were suddenly devoid of ideas. The plot is relatively simple and involves the Enterprise visiting a divided system in which the planets Remus and Romulus are divided and the Remus leader has proposed unity between the planets.

The Enterprise gets involved after discovering what looks like a fore-runner to Data; inevitably we meet the leader who just happens to be a younger clone of Captain Picard.

While the effects on this movie and the action sequences were very good, the plot was very simplistic and flawed and tried to bring in some ancient mythology without actually doing it well. It loses a lot of the qualities that had been instilled into Star Trek and for a while looked like it would cause the death of the Star Trek franchise (luckily it didn’t).

This is one of the poorer movies in the series.

I must admit to being very sad when it looked like Star Trek 10: Nemesis would be the last Star Trek movie to grace our screens, I was therefore very excited when I read about a new movie based on the original series crew, but prior to the series – knowing much about Star Trek, I was intrigued to see how they would get past some of the dilemmas that the original series posed, like the fact that Captain Kirk wasn’t the first captain of the Enterprise.

I must say, that although this also is a transition movie, written to explain the ‘fix’ they had to do to get a young Kirk as captain of the Enterprise, they did it in a believable way and presented a neat ‘solution’ by creating an alternate ‘future’ that essentially negated all the other series and movies, and leaves the franchise wide open to explore new plots!

When a Romulon freight ship seeks vengeance on Spock when he fails to save the Romulon’s home planet, it follows Spock though time to the early 24^th century – this single event changes history, and despite the obvious paradoxes, sets forth a chain of events that while different to the original series, brings together a young ‘original series’ crew.

The movie is very good and as such manages to transition very well, while providing a pretty believable and exciting story – it is one of the better movies in the series and I really look forward to seeing the new ‘old’ crew develop and grow.